


still standing

by thunderylee



Category: Japanese Actor RPF, KAT-TUN (Band)
Genre: Canon Universe, F/M, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-12-21
Updated: 2008-12-21
Packaged: 2019-02-03 08:12:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,550
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12744444
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thunderylee/pseuds/thunderylee
Summary: Perfect in his imperfections, she wouldn’t have him any other way.





	still standing

**Author's Note:**

> reposted from agck.

He still can’t believe she said yes. Maru wrings his hands for the rest of the day, driving the other members of his group crazy with his worrying and lack of concentration on pretty much anything except the fact that _Horikita Maki_ will be in his apartment _tonight_.

“Make sure to pick up your underwear from the floor,” Koki helpfully tells him. “Girls _hate_ that.”

“She says she doesn’t like flowers,” Kame says, “but get her some anyway. She appreciates the thought more than anything.”

“Pi says she likes American food,” Jin offers. “I have a kickass recipe for lasagna.”

Junno looks up from his laptop. “Did you know Maki’s not really her name?”

“Here,” Ueda says carelessly, flicking a packet into Maru’s lap. “No babies.”

Maru covers his face with his hands as he pockets the item. “This really isn’t necessary, you guys.”

“Yuichi,” Koki says slowly, pulling Maru’s wrist away. “We want you to be happy.”

“And by happy, he means laid,” Jin clarifies.

Kame narrows his eyes. “If that’s all you want from her -”

“Jin said it, not me!” Maru exclaims, cowering behind Ueda as Kame approaches angrily. “I actually like her!”

“Aww,” chorus Junno and Ueda.

A fierce blush crosses Maru’s face. “Can you all just let me freak out in peace?”

“Oh my god,” Koki says suddenly, turning to face Maru with a serious look. “Do you have toilet paper?”

Maru rolls his eyes and reaches for his drama script. “Of course I do.”

Kame grabs his chin and stares him hard in the eye. “Don’t get your hopes up, okay? She’s not really one to do the whole ‘love’ thing, and I’d hate to see you get hurt.”

“It’s just a date,” Maru says calmly, or as calmly as he can manage with his heart beating so fast.

He knows Kame can see right through him, but thankfully Jin separates them by thrusting a messily-written piece of paper in his face. “If you need any help, call me. I make it all the time. Keeps Pi chunky.”

“He’s not the only one,” Ueda mutters.

Maru tunes them out as he scans Jin’s recipe and feels a little better at its simplicity. Not that he’s planning on winning Maki over with _food_ , but he’s learned from Massu that people are happier and more receptive to new things when their stomachs are full.

Honestly, he’ll be happy if she smiles at him.

::

The first bad sign is the snow falling down from the sky, but Maki assures him that it’s still fine to meet. The good thing is that it’s falling down so hard that there isn’t anyone else out; Maru assumes that they’re all settled in their own warm homes, watching the snow pile up and praying for work and classes to be closed the next day.

He’s not that lucky – he’s pretty sure Kame would still hold practice even if a typhoon sprung up over the city. He’d have an excuse for being late, though.

He waits for Maki in front of the little shopping district for twenty minutes before he receives a mail, a quick “where r u??” Maru looks around furiously, expecting to see her emerge from behind a snow-covered statue, then manages to make his hands stop shaking long enough to reply with his location.

“i thought it was the other one. don’t move – i’ll meet u there.”

Maru closes his eyes; the _other_ one! How could he have been so stupid, of course that’s the one Maki would go to. He kicks the side of the wall in frustration, which turns out to be a very bad idea because the snow that had settled in the overhang all came down to cover him.

As he shakes it out of his hair and tries to regain feeling in his ears, he thinks that it would have been better if he hadn’t gotten out of bed at all this morning. Then he wouldn’t have run into Maki at their filming location, wouldn’t have flailed all over himself and somehow asked her out, and wouldn’t be standing here right now in the freezing cold possibly catching pneumonia because he didn’t think to wear a hat.

“Yuichi-kun~!”

Her voice sounds distant in the harsh winds – this is quickly turning into a blizzard, he realizes – but somehow it’s also like a beacon in the dead of night, a ray of hope amidst the darkness. He’s smiling as she jogs towards him, cheeks pink from the cold with a knitted scarf wrapped around her head.

Right before she reaches him, she starts to lose her balance and Maru realizes that she’s hit a patch of ice. He rushes to catch her but hits some ice himself, sending them both flying into a snow bank. It takes him a second to notice that he landed completely on top of her, immediately rolling off before it occurs to him that he’s just willingly laid on his back in a foot of snow.

It’s embarrassingly silent until she laughs out loud, and he can’t decide whether that makes it better or worse. “I’m sorry, Maki-chan -” he starts.

She’s grinning as she sits up and looks down at him. “That was fun. Can we stay out here and play some more?”

“We might have to,” Maru replies, feeling a little warm despite the weather. “I’m not sure if the train is still running.”

“Is it far?” Maki asks. “We can walk. I’m not cold at all.”

She pulls up her scarf for effect, leaving only her eyes exposed and looking very much like a multicolored ninja. Maru laughs at the thought, then squeaks in surprise when Maki gets him right in the chest with a snowball.

“I win!” she cries, racing across the way where there is harder, icier snow.

Maru immediately goes on the defense, finding large things to hide behind that prove counterproductive when the force of Maki’s snowballs have the snow already on them falling on Maru’s head.

Maki finds this hilarious and aims more for the top of the sculpture or tree. Maru’s ready to surrender when he peeks around his latest hiding place and Maki is nowhere to be seen. He’s only scared for a little bit until he feels something very cold and wet being shoved down the back of his coat.

“You’re not very good at this, are you?” she asks innocently, patting his back to spread the snow around.

“Not really,” he admits, his teeth chattering a little.

Her eyes soften as she helps him up and holds onto his arm as they start walking down the street. It’s a comfortable silence, one which surprises Maru because normally he associates quiet with awkward. He knows that Maki isn’t a big talker, though, which makes it easier to walk side by side with no underlying obligation to keep up a conversation.

Neither one speaks until they reach the train station, where thankfully the trains are still running even if the next one to Maru’s neighborhood isn’t for another ten minutes. It’s Maki who offers to buy coffee from the stand to make up for drenching Maru, and against his better judgment he accepts. It’s too hot and too bitter but he drinks it anyway, discarding the cup just in time for the train to arrive.

Nothing bad happens on the train and Maru is grateful; he doesn’t think he can take anything else going wrong on this date. Maki seems happy enough, but it’s a little humiliating that he had already gone to the wrong place and couldn’t even hold his own in a snowball fight. A quick glance to his watch shows that they should be getting back just in time for the lasagna to be done baking, which makes him a little more cheerful as they watch the snow-covered city zip by from the train window.

::

The pure white of the outside world seems much preferable compared to the smoky blackness of Maru’s kitchen. He supposes he shouldn’t be surprised that he can’t even manage to make lasagna, something even _Jin_ can do with no problems.

Mister gives him an unimpressed look from his dog bed.

He surveys the black mess in the pan while Maki casually opens windows and catches sight of Jin’s recipe on the counter. “How long did you leave it in for?” she asks.

“It said two hours,” Maru says dejectedly.

Maki wrinkles her nose. “It says two hours is if it’s frozen.”

Hanging his head, Maru squeezes his eyes shut and prays that when he opens them, his kitchen will be its natural off-white color and there will be something edible for dinner.

He jumps when Maki clears her throat. “I saw a McDonald’s on the corner. I’ll let you buy?”

Maru chuckles despite himself, reluctantly raising his head and giving his guest a grateful look. “I’m so sorry, Maki-chan…”

She shrugs and offers a sympathetic smile. “If anything, I’m not bored.”

“That’s… a good thing,” Maru says hopefully as he reaches for the coat that he’d just taken off.

Maki makes a small noise, and Maru looks up to see her pointing at the oven. “Shouldn’t you turn it off?”

A sigh rips from Maru’s lungs, but Maki just hides a laugh and sneaks past him to turn the oven off herself. Then her hand is on his, and he stares at them for a minute until she tugs him towards the door.

“Come on, let’s let your apartment air out,” she suggests. “Will your dog be okay? Maybe we should take him with us.”

Mister’s head perks up at the possibility of going outside, and even though Maru is pretty sure that they don’t let dogs inside McDonald’s, he grabs the leash and hooks it onto Mister’s collar.

Maki offers to stay outside with Mister while Maru orders, and miraculously he manages to get their food and drinks without tripping or spilling anything. They munch on fries as they walk back, purposely dawdling in order to give the smoke enough time to vacate. Maru imagines billows of black smoke emerging from his windows when they round the next corner, which thankfully doesn’t happen.

Maki does sigh though, and Maru turns his head to see her rolling her eyes at her burger. “They put mustard on it,” she says.

“I told them no mustard -” Maru starts.

“I know you did.” Maki looks longingly at it. “I guess just fries will be okay.”

“No,” Maru says firmly. “Let’s trade. I don’t mind mustard.”

Maki peers into his bag. “What do you have?”

“Nuggets,” he says. “With barbeque sauce.”

She looks thoughtful. “I wouldn’t want you to give up your dinner -”

“Maki-chan,” he says slowly. “I usually get a burger. I just decided to get nuggets this time. I like everything that comes on it, it’s okay. Trade.”

Then he switches their bags just as Maki dropped the rewrapped burger back inside hers. He immediately feels guilty for being so forceful, but when he peeks out of the corner of his eye, he sees the corners of her lips turned up into a tiny smile.

::

“Are you sure you don’t mind?” Maru asks as he pushes up his sleeves and fills another bucket with soapy water.

“If we don’t remove it now, it will stain,” Maki tells him. “Do you want yellow walls?”

Maru shakes his head firmly and takes a sponge to the wall. The black comes off in one clean swipe, which amazes him slightly.

“Men,” Maki scoffs, but she looks amused as she attacks the other side of the oven.

He watches her as he scrubs, finally seeing what lay beneath her giant coat. A simple sweater and jeans, her hair down and straight, the remaining tint in her cheeks from the cold. Maru has a heater but it’s not very good, leaving him to rely on warm clothes or the blanket under his table. At least this manual labor was keeping them warm.

“I think that part is clean,” she points out, and Maru belatedly realizes that he’d been wiping the same spot over and over. “Move, I’ll get it.”

He’s shoved out of the way as she finishes taking the char off of the wall, and Maru’s surprised at how normal his kitchen looks again. Minus the blackened pan on the stove, which is quickly disposed of to make it look like nothing ever happened.

“Thank you,” he says sincerely, earning an odd look from her as she blows hair out of her face. “I mean, for everything. Understanding.”

She nods, smiling uncomfortably as she looks around his kitchen, presumably for something to do. “So what exciting thing is going to happen next?”

“The boring part,” Maru replies. “A movie.”

“Yeah, that is boring,” she says with a laugh. “I could use some boring after the past couple of hours, though.”

Maru tries not to smile too hard as he grabs his most recent DVD purchases and fans them out in front of her. “Pick one.”

Surprisingly she picks the historical samurai movie, which Maru finds boring in the first twenty-five minutes and considers trying to return until he feels the weight of Maki’s head on his shoulder. They’re bundled under his table blanket, the air becoming crisper as the sun goes down, but Maru can’t feel any of it because of the heat that surges through his veins at the way Maki’s breath feels on his collarbone through his shirt.

“Aren’t you going to put your arm around me?” she asks softly.

Clearing his throat uncomfortably, he tries to lift his arm and gets stuck in the blanket, tugging so hard that he accidentally elbows her in the side when he finally gets free. “Maki-chan! I’m so sorry.”

“It’s okay,” she says, sounded very pained as she firmly grabs onto his arm and puts it around her shoulders. “There.”

Maru can’t even be embarrassed because she’s _in his embrace_ , a thin arm flung across his stomach _under the blanket_ as she snuggles closer. He might have squeaked when her fingers squeezed the flesh of his side, playing with the bottom of his shirt that had managed to ride up from his slouching.

“Maki-chan,” he sputters quickly. “What are you – I mean, do you…”

“Yuichi-kun,” she says briskly, drawing little circle on his skin with her fingers and paying no attention to how he squirms. “Relax.”

“Relax,” Maru repeats.

“You like me, don’t you?” she asks bluntly.

“Um… that is… yes,” he managers to get out.

“I hope you don’t have a habit of asking out girls you don’t like,” Maki says, pulling away so that Maru can see her amused smile. “I like you too.”

“Eh?” Maru replies, honestly surprised. “But Kame said-”

Maki holds up her hand. “If you want me to stick around, please do not ever believe anything Kamenashi or Yamashita say about me. That was _three years ago_. I’m not even the same person I was one year ago.”

“Who are you then?” Maru asks curiously.

She slowly places one hand on the floor on the other side of him, leaning over him enough to make him practically fall back against the couch. “I’m an adult now.”

“Yes you are,” Maru agrees, remembering the teasing he’d endured in the early stages of his crush when Maki was still underage.

“I want to know what it’s like,” she goes on, carefully moving her leg across his lap. She gets tangled in the blankets and actually blushes as she almost knees him in a very bad place, but Maru helps her out and leaves his shaking hand lingering on her thigh. “I want to do things that adults do.”

“Maki…” Maru responds, disbelieving and concerned at the same time. “You don’t have to do it right _now_.”

“But I do, because it’s you,” she says firmly, biting her lip before meeting his eyes. “You won’t hurt me.”

Maru’s heart swells, along with the nervousness that comes from her expectation. “I’ll still be here tomorrow.”

“Don’t you want me?” Maki asks, pouting as she leans back and starts to get up. “Have I made a fool out of myself?”

“No, Maki -” and several things happen at once, one being a particularly loud fighting scene in the movie, startling Maki to lose her balance, landing flush against his lower half and eliciting a moan that has Maki grabbing for his face, pressing their lips together and leaving her legs exactly where they are.

It takes a minute to situate their faces so that Maru’s nose isn’t in the way, but then her lips are parting for him and his arms are wrapping tightly around her back, pulling her close and trying his best to remain a gentleman until she gives a fierce roll of her hips.

There’s no way she can’t feel how hard he is, the soft moans directed into his mouth telling him that she’s feeling it too. This is too fast, much too fast, and Maru is angry at himself already for not being able to stop. He feels her fingers tugging at his shirt and takes the opportunity to halt her when she tries to kiss him again after pulling it off, keeping his arms around her to keep her from thinking that he wasn’t interested anymore.

“What?” she says, a little breathlessly. “Yuichi, I really want to do this with you, and I can tell you want to do it with me.”

“Can I call you Marina?” Maru asks, surprisingly himself as well as her.

“Marina,” Maki repeats her own name like it’s foreign. “Nobody calls me that.”

“Your mother must,” Maru points out. “And your sisters?”

“You would be the only one aside from them,” Maki says, still looking incredulous.

“So it’s okay then?” Maru prompts. “Mari-chan.”

Her face seems frozen as she nods, staring at Maru like he has three heads.

Before he can speak again – to thank her – she descends upon him, capturing his lips in such a heated frenzy that he loses his mind a little. Holding onto her to stay grounded, he tries to hold back his uncontrollable noises as she moves purposefully against him, gasping into his mouth as the friction grows.

“Mari-chan,” Maru says desperately, the new name rolling off of his tongue just like he’d always addressed her that way. “It’s starting to hurt.”

“What?” she replies distractedly, slowing down until she figures out what Maru means. “Oh, sorry. Maybe we should just, um… yeah.”

Maru can’t help it; he laughs. “Awkward.”

“No! It’s not,” Maki insists, hands on her hips as she remains straddling Maru and surveying the situation. “Okay,” she finally says, reaching her hands between them and going right for his belt buckle.

Maru feels highly embarrassed as she unfastens his pants and starts to push them down. “Wait!” he says suddenly, startling her as he fumbles around in his pockets for Ueda’s ‘present’ before it was unobtainable. “Don’t get the wrong idea, Ueda made me take it.”

“I have six in my purse,” she tells him straightforwardly. “Not that I expected… you know, all six, but Meisa told me it’s always good to have extras in case of premature ejaculation.”

Maru chokes on his breath and coughs for awhile, unable to look at her even when he’s not wheezing anymore. “It’s… it’s good to be prepared, I guess.”

Then her small hand is wrapping around him and he throws his head back, grateful for something that isn’t harsh denim and scared out of his mind at the same time, terrified of finishing too soon and humiliating himself in the worst possible way with the one girl who actually wants to have sex with him.

“Does it still hurt?” she asks sadly, loosening her grip, and Maru shakes his head quickly before blindly leaning up to find her lips. She presumably figures out what he wants and meets him halfway, tongue sweeping inside his mouth as he struggles to reciprocate with her soft touch overloading his senses.

“Come on,” she says against his lips, raising her hips invitingly. “Take my pants off, you know you want to. Stop holding back.”

Maru’s hands fumble on her thighs, sliding up to the small waist and stubborn button that doesn’t want to pop. She giggles into his mouth and suddenly her touch is gone, the coldness taking over until he opens his eyes and sees her step out of her jeans and panties, keeping the blanket over them for some kind of modesty (and heat).

He knows it’s going to happen before she even touches him again; the feel of her heat against him has him breathing hard, trying to tell her, his words lost amongst the shocks that take him over as her thin fingers return to stroking him, and it’s over as soon as she reaches the tip.

He kind of hopes that the orgasm kills him, in that death would be a better option than facing the girl whom he’s just blown his chances with. He keeps his eyes closed for as long as he can, even when a soft pair of lips kisses his nose and then the rest of his face before settling on his lips.

“You look like it was painful,” she whispers. “Did I do something wrong?”

“No,” he replies breathlessly, squirming a little uncomfortably. “You were perfect. I just… we didn’t get to…”

“Are you done for the _night_?” she asks incredulously. “I guess I can wait until morning. Do you mind if I sleep over then?”

His eyes pop open, seeing the seriousness on her face – and the lack of amusement – that has him smiling without knowing it and leaning up for a kiss. “Ten minutes,” he says. “Give me ten minutes.”

She grins. “Okay. Do you want me to get up, or..?”

Shaking his head, he pulls her close and gently places a hand on the inside of her thigh. “Can I?”

“Yeah,” she says, spreading her legs a little more to accommodate. “That would be okay.”

Maru presses his face into her neck, dragging his lips along her skin. “Let me know if I do something wrong, or if there is something else…”

“Okay,” she replies, wriggling impatiently. “Come on, do it.”

He chuckles as he moves further between her legs, feeling her heat and how wet she is for him. The first finger lingers for a little while, exploring, listening for a gasp or jerk or anything that says _right there_. Maru’s seen the adult movies but they’re not exactly a guide – for example, the leading man never shrieks when the girl suddenly convulses and moans unabashedly.

“Sorry, sorry,” Maki whispers heatedly. “I just… I really liked that.”

“I gathered,” Maru replies with a chuckle, gently approaching that area again and bracing himself this time. Her hips seem to direct him, moving the small ball against his finger instead of the other way around. She’s clutching onto his arms and moaning into his neck, completely unashamed in her arousal and bringing Maru back to life faster than ever before.

She kicks off the blanket and pulls her sweater over her head, leaving her in only a bra as she looks apologetically at Maru. “It’s really hot,” she pants, obvious to the snow outside or the low temperature in the apartment in favor of the heat that encompasses them both as she shudders and screams into his neck in the undeniable explosion of orgasm.

He expects her to calm down, to rest like he did, but certainly not to grab the condom from next to them and roll it on him. He’s only half hard but makes it the rest of the way at the promise of being inside her, which happens sooner than later as she practically sits down right on him and lets out a groan that definitely doesn’t signify pain.

Maru can’t move, scared that he’ll hurt her by the way her body is protesting him. He looks helplessly up at her and places his hands firmly on her hips, waiting for her to get used to him. She meets his eyes and smiles, a saucy expression that leaves him a little baffled until she starts to move, careless to the way her breasts bounce as she arches her back and slowly takes him in and out.

He’s resulted to wheezes as his entire focus is on himself inside her, the way she feels around him and the way she looks moving back and forth on top of him like a pro. The smooth skin of her face shines in the light from the TV as the credits roll on the forgotten movie, the one that she probably suggested so that neither one of them would actually want to watch it.

“Yuichi,” she gasps, and he immediately looks at her expectantly, taking a second to realize that she’s just _calling out his name_. “Yuichi, this feels so good.”

He hopes that she doesn’t expect him to talk dirty, or say much of anything because his voice isn’t working and even if it was he’d only be able to say her name. Instead he shows her how he feels by slowly rolling his hips, meeting her rhythm and making her cry out while he groans before he can stop himself.

“Yuichi,” she says again, taking him higher with each breath of his name. “Yuichi…”

“Yes,” he manages to spit out, feeling her tighten around him and wondering if she’s going to come again, if he could make her just by doing this, he would feel like the world’s best lover if he could. “Mari-chan -”

And she clamps down around him, shaking as she struggles to keep moving through her orgasm. She immediately falls flush again him, wrapping her arms around his neck and breathing hard into his neck. “Don’t stop.”

He doesn’t, taking over by thrusting up harder and using his hands on her hips to pull her down at the same time. She moans again, squeezing him much more tightly than before, bringing him to the edge once again earlier than he would have liked.

He tilts his head, rubs his nose against the side of her face like it’s a warning. “Mari-chan, I can’t… I’m gonna-”

“It’s okay,” she whispers. “Go ahead, come for me.”

Maru doesn’t think he could have stopped even if his entire family and all of his coworkers burst into the room; he bangs his head against the sofa as it falls back, careless to the pain as he releases inside her, her body milking him until he has nothing left.

They lay still for a beat, then she’s giggling into his neck. “I’m amazed nothing else went wrong.”

“Don’t say that!” Maru hisses, quickly checking the condom as he slowly pulls out and finding it to be in the right place. “God, that scared me.”

“Hey,” she says, biting her lip as she carefully relocates to Maru’s side. “We made it!”

Maru pauses to assess that thought. “I guess we did.”

Maki fingers his collarbone, smiling when he shivers. “Maybe we’ll make it through tomorrow too.”

“That’s a definite possibility,” Maru tells her, leaning over to kiss her with no anxiety.

There’s no reason to rush, after all.


End file.
